Customs ship should be sent to disrupt Japanese whaling: Bob Brown

An Australian government ship should be sent to disrupt Japanese whaling in a similar fashion to the Sea Shepherd, the environment group's local head Bob Brown says.

Talking to Fairfax Media, the former Greens leader said there would be a lot of ''sniggering'' in Tokyo about the federal government's decision not to send a customs vessel to the Southern Ocean this summer to monitor Japanese whaling activities, breaking an election promise.

Last summer’s whaling season was marked by several high seas collisions between Japanese and Sea Shepherd boats. Photo: Eliza Muirhead/Sea Shepherd Australia

On Sunday Environment Minister Greg Hunt said instead an aircraft would be used from January to March to monitor whaling and any clashes between Japanese vessels and those of the Sea Shepherd.

Dr Brown said three Sea Shepherd vessels – the Bob Barker, the Steve Irwin and the Sam Simon – were currently on-route to intercept Japanese whaling boats, which he said was expected to take place before the end of the year.

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He said the government did not want to police a federal court decision in 2008 declaring the whaling to be in breach of Australian law.

''The last custom vessel was sent down by Kevin Rudd in 2007, and in 2008 the federal government court ruled the whaling was illegal and issued an injunction against it,'' Dr Brown said.

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''We've seen the [whaling] vessels go south since then and successive governments don't want a policing vessel down there with its arms folded while a breach of the federal court injunction is occurring right in front of it.

''They are aiding and abetting the breaking of the law.''

Dr Brown said a customs vessel should be sent to the Southern Ocean to stop the whaling.

Asked what an Australian customs vessel should do on the water, Mr Brown said ''the exact same as Sea Shepherd does'', adding it should come alongside diplomatic pressure from Canberra.

''It is a big operation. The harpoon ships go into action, they are very fast, they drive their harpoons into the spines of the whales. Then it takes up to half an hour for them to die,'' Dr Brown said.

''They then have to be cartered across to this big lumbering factory ship and put on an open slipway to be dragged up to the factory ship and that is where Sea Shepherd obstructs the whaling.

''There is no reason why an Australian ship couldn't do the same.''

Dr Brown said the customs patrol vessel, the Ocean Protector was built specifically to handle the icy conditions of the Southern Ocean, but instead it was patrolling the waters around Christmas Island for asylum seeker boats.

''They can turn back the boats to uphold that promise against asylum seekers, but they won't turn back the boats coming south to slaughter the whales,'' Dr Brown said.

Speaking on Sunday, Mr Hunt said the advice he had received from customs authorities was that an aircraft would allow for greater range, flexibility and speed to monitor the Japanese whaling fleet.

''One of the challenges that we've had is that there have been disputes between whalers and protesters in the past as to what has happened,'' Mr Hunt said.

''We want them to be aware that there will be monitoring – independent monitoring which from an aerial position can take independent vision of what occurs.''

Last summer's whaling season was marked by several high seas collisions between Japanese and Sea Shepherd boats.

Japanese authorities have complained about the actions of the Sea Shepherd organisation and have pursued them legally. As part of one legal action earlier this year a United States appeal court labelled the conservation group ''pirates''.